Purpose: The United States (U.S.) has traditionally produced the world’s top research scientists and engineers, leading to breakthrough advances in science and technology. Despite the importance of STEM careers, many U.S. students are not graduating with strong STEM knowledge, skills or interests, and the percentage of students prepared for or pursuing STEM degrees or careers is declining. Research shows that the decreased interest in STEM typically begins in the middle school years, pose significant academic and social challenges for students. This project will develop a web-based game teach 6th to 8th students key scientific inquiry skills, along with the academic mindsets and learning strategies to facilitate engagement and effective science learning.
Project Activities: The researchers will create a prototype by mapping key Next Generation Science Standards and learning goals with concepts and content, and producing a game design document. Following completion of the prototype, the researchers will finalize the server architecture, create the core code systems, concept art, and develop a prototype in order to simulate the final user experience. Iterative refinements will be conducted as needed at major production milestones until the game is fully functional. Once development is complete, the research team will assess the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the game to improve outcomes in a pilot study. In this study, 200 students in 10 classes will participate, with 5 of the classrooms randomly assigned to use the game and 5 who will proceed as normal. All students will complete pre- and post- program surveys assessing their academic mindsets, learning strategies, and science skills.
Product: This project will develop SciSkillQuest, a web-based multiplayer game intended to teach middle school students scientific inquiry skills and to foster academic growth mindsets in science. Students will pursue quests, employing inquiry skills to navigate and succeed in the game, including Questioning, Modeling, Investigating, Analyzing, Computing, Explaining, Arguing, and Informing. The game will include different paths to a solution, role playing elements, immersive narratives, challenge-based progressions, and peer collaboration to engage players. The growth mindset message — that ability and skill are developed through effort and learning — will be introduced and reinforced through feedback by embedded in-game characters. The games will be supplemental to the curriculum but will also be designed to be integrated within instructional practice. The game will be available for mobile devices as well as web browsers.
Purpose: In the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress only 17% of 8th grade students performed at or above the proficient level in U.S. history. One way to engage students in learning history is to create history learning resources that are designed to be relevant and appealing to young people's interests and regular activities. Surveys find that almost all teenage boys and girls play digital games, and the majority of teens play daily. This project will leverage the potential of games and technology to engage students and increase history skills and content knowledge.
Project Activities: The team, consisting of graphic artists, content specialists, computer scientists, and programmers, will initially create wireframes and a functional game prototype. Following feedback from a group of students and teachers on the user-interface, the team will produce an online tablet app. Iterative refinements will be conducted at major production milestones until the intervention is fully functional. Once development is complete, the researchers will assess the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the product to improve outcomes in a pilot study. The study will include 200 8th grade students in eight classrooms. Four classrooms will be assigned to play to game as part of the curriculum over three to five class periods, and four classrooms will be taught the same historical content using the business as usual curriculum without the game. Each group will complete pre- and post- assessments to assess differences in history knowledge and skills.
Product: This project team will develop a tablet-based interactive role-playing game that immerses 5th through 9th grade students in the history of the Great Depression. The game will provide players an experiential understanding of the hardships that beset Americans in the 1930s and their strategies for survival, as individuals and as a nation. Features of the game will include story-based immersive narrative missions where student's decisions continually drive the action, tips and hints for students who are struggling in the game, writing tools, and interactive maps. The game will can be integrated within a course or used as a supplement. A teacher dashboard will be developed to facilitate the use of the game within classroom settings. Finally, the final product will include upgrades to existing games, including City of Immigrants and the The Hardest Times. The upgrades will publish these games to tablets and will include deeper in-game assessment opportunities.
Purpose: There is concern about a decline in mathematics achievement scores among U.S. students during the middle school years. For example, while 4th grade U.S. students rank 8th overall on an international mathematics comparison, by 10th grade U.S. student's drop significantly to 25th in the same comparison. Some researchers posit that much of this decline relates to how math is taught in the U.S. and with how students become less engaged as learners in middle school. The purpose of this project is to develop a web-based game to engage 7h grade students in a narrative-based story which will apply learning of content and skills aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in mathematics.
Project Activities: During Phase I in 2012, the team developed a functioning prototype and conducted usability and feasibility research with fourteen 7th grade students. Researchers found that the prototype functioned as intended and that students were highly engaged while playing the game. In Phase II, the team will develop a fully-functional user interface with animated characters, interactivity across student users, narrative scripts and accompanying art assets, 36 problem sets, and student and teacher dashboards and databases. After development is complete, a pilot study will examine the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the game to improve math learning. The study will include 120 students in 6 classrooms in three schools, with one classroom per school randomly assigned to use the game and the other half assigned to a business-as-usual control. Analyses will compare student scores on pre and post mathematics measures.
Product: Empires is a web-based game that addresses 36 pre-algebra Common Core State Standards in mathematics for 7th and 8th grades. The game follows a storyline in a recreation of an ancient empire which is at the brink of agricultural revolution and of becoming a trade economy. As students play the game, they engage in math-focused activities to drive the action, such as taxing citizens to learn ratios and proportions, allocating resources to learn percentages, and measuring the distance and time between a neighboring empire by applying the principles of the Pythagorean Theorem. As a socially networked game, students will interact with other students in the class to complete trades that lead to encounters with different math problems. The game will include two helpful, funny, advisors who will scaffold learning through mathematical discourse, arguing over the next most important thing to do. The game design architecture will work on a wide range of computers, including desktops and iPads. A teacher's guide and companion website will provide guidance to classroom activities that complement the game.
The project team is developing a prototype of a mobile platform, Zaption, to support teachers in using video clips to enrich learning. The product’s user-interface will allow teachers to easily add annotations to videos, make short video clips that align to topics, and enhance videos with time-linked elements and assessments that appear at the top of each video. In Phase I pilot research, the team will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, if teachers are able to use the prototype for different purposes, and whether students are engaged by the prototype.
The project team is developing a prototype of Happy Atoms, a game to support middle school students in learning about the composition of molecules. Happy Atoms will include physical manipulative balls with embedded magnets wirelessly connected to a tablet application (app) to recognize whether or not the created molecule exists and explain why or why not. The app will also include teacher resources including instructional videos and curriculum suggestions in order to better integrate the use of the product into classrooms. In the Phase I pilot research, the project team will examine whether the hardware and software prototypes function as planned, teachers are able to integrate it within the classroom environment, and students are engaged with the prototype.
Purpose: This project will develop and test Eco, an online multiplayer virtual environment and game designed to enhance middle school students' knowledge of ecology and environmental literacy. This is important because according to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress, students in the United States ranked 17th in science among the world's most developed countries, and over a third of eighth-graders scored below basic level, the lowest performance level. The Framework for 21st Century Skills presents the need for education materials that engage students and use technology effectively, meet rigorous content and skill standards, foster interdisciplinary work, and promote collaborative problem solving.
Project Activities: During Phase I (completed in 2014), the team developed a prototype of Eco consisting of a system architecture that enabled user-controlled avatars to complete basic tasks. At the end of Phase I, a pilot study with 60 students from five classrooms demonstrated that the prototype functioned as intended, that students found the game to be engaging, and that students were able to collaborate with classmates during gameplay. In Phase II the developers will strengthen functionality, add content, and build a teacher dashboard to track student data and house implementation resources. After development is complete, the team will conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility and usability, fidelity of implementation, and the promise of the game for promoting students' ecosystem learning and environmental literacy. The researchers will collect data from 150 students in 10 classrooms. Half of the classrooms will be randomly assigned to use Eco to supplement standard classroom instruction while the other half will continue with normal practice. Analyses will compare pre-and-post scores of student's ecology knowledge and environmental literacy.
Product: Eco will be a multi-player game to teach standards in ecology and prepare middle schools students to be environmentally literate citizens. To play the game, students will enter a shared online world featuring a simulated ecosystem of plants and animals. Students will co-create a civilization by measuring, modeling, and analyzing the underlying ecosystem. Students will advocate for proposed plans to classmates and make decisions as a group. Cooperation and science-based decision making activities will occur, in order to prevent the destruction of the environment. The game will include teacher resources to support the alignment of game play to learning goals, and implementation.
Purpose: This project will develop and test Happy Atoms, a physical modeling set and an interactive iPad app for use in high school chemistry classrooms. Happy Atoms is designed to facilitate student learning of atomic modeling, a difficult topic for chemistry high school students to master. Standard instructional practice in this area typically includes teachers using slides, static ball and stick models, or computer-simulation software to present diagrams on a whiteboard. However, these methods do not adequately depict atomic interactions effectively, thus obscuring complex knowledge and understanding of their formulas and characteristics.
Project Activities: During Phase I (completed in 2014), the team developed a prototype of a physical modeling set including a computerized ball and stick molecular models representing the first 17 elements on the periodic table and an iPad app that identifies and generates information about atoms. A pilot study at the end of Phase I tested the prototype with 187 high school students in 12 chemistry classes. Researchers found that the prototype functioned as intended. Results showed that 88% of students enjoyed using the prototype, and that 79% indicated that it helped learning. In Phase II, the team will develop additional models and will strengthen functionality for effective integration into instructional practice. After development is complete, a larger pilot study will assess the usability and feasibility, fidelity of implementation, and promise of Happy Atoms to improve learning. The study will include 30 grade 11 chemistry classrooms, with half randomly assigned to use Happy Atoms and half who will continue with business as usual procedures. Analyses will compare pre-and-post scores of student's chemistry learning, including atomic modeling.
Product: Happy Atoms will include a set of physical models paired with an iPad app to cover high school chemistry topics in atomic modeling. The modeling set will include individual plastic balls representing the elements of the periodic table. Students will use an iPad app to take a picture of models they create. Using computer-generated algorithms, the app will then identify the model and generate information about its physical and chemical properties and uses. The app will also inform students if a model that is created does not exist. Happy Atoms will replace or supplement lesson plans to enhance chemistry teaching. The app will include teacher resources suggesting how to incorporate games and activities to reinforce lesson plans and learning.
This project team is developing and testing a prototype of the Teachley Analytics Library, a platform intended to host third party-developed mathematics game apps for students in kindergarten through Grade 8. The prototype will include a dashboard to host games and generate formative assessment data to inform teacher instruction. In the Phase I pilot study, the team will examine whether the prototype functions as planned with 40 Grade 1 and 2 math teachers. The study will test if teachers are able to implement games within the classroom and utilize data to inform practice, and whether students are engaged by gameplay.
In prior research and development, the team developed WuzzitTrouble, an iPhone and iPad gaming app where players solve problems using number sense mathematical strategies. This project will develop and test a prototype of an adaptive engine for this game, intended to tailor gameplay to the skill levels of individual students and to provide support (or scaffold learning) for students with weaker skills. The Phase I pilot will involve six Grade 6 classrooms and 100 students. The study will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, and if students of different skill levels are engaged and able to play the game with the support of the prototype’s adaptive engine.
This project team will develop and test a prototype of Planet 3, a multi-media online platform to apply real world problems (e.g., pollution, overpopulation) to middle school earth and life science learning. The prototype will include videos, simulations, and games to allow opportunities for students to explore problem sets, collect and analyze data, and draw conclusions. At the end of Phase I in a pilot study with two classrooms, the researchers will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, where teachers can implement the prototype within classroom practice, and if students are engaged while examining real-world problems.
This project team will develop and test a prototype an online platform to facilitate engineering project challenges within K–12 classrooms across many schools. The prototype will include a content management platform to enable a high volume of challenges for students to conduct projects on a broad range of STEM topics, such as computer coding, digital modeling, or producing simulations. In a pilot study with one school, the researchers will examine whether the prototype functions as planned, whether teachers are able to incorporate challenges within instruction practice, and if multiple classrooms are able to participate in a challenge and produce a product that in response to a challenge.
Purpose: This project team will fully develop and test an open online platform that posts student-led engineering project challenges for Kindergarten to grade 12 classrooms. Research demonstrates that improved attitudes towards engineering in elementary and middle school are imperative to increase the pursuit of STEM degrees and careers. This project intends to address a shortage of tools and curricula in K-12 engineering today, in order to meet the learning objectives new the Next Generation Science Standards and to engage students in STEM.
Project Activities: During Phase I, (completed in 2016), the team developed a prototype, including a content management platform to host challenges on a broad range of STEM topics, such as computer coding, digital modeling, or producing simulations. At the end of Phase I, researchers completed a pilot study with 100 students and two teachers. Results demonstrated that the prototype operated as intended, that students were highly engaged with challenges on the platform, and that teachers were able to incorporate challenges within instructional practice. In Phase II, the team will refine the landing page, further develop the system architecture to accommodate a larger number of challenges, and upgrade the teacher portal to build capacity for the effective integration into instructional practice. After development is complete, the research team will conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility and usability, fidelity of implementation, and promise of the platform to improve learning. The study will include 40 high school classrooms with a minimum of 25 students per class. Half of the classrooms will be randomly assigned to use the platform to conduct a challenge and half to follow business-as-usual procedures. Researchers will compare pre-and-post scores of students' science and engineering self-assessments, which measure ability to engage in science and engineering practices such as asking questions, modeling, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing data, and constructing explanations, as well as content-specific measures depending on the specific challenge with which classes engage.
Product: The project team will develop a platform that will facilitate design challenges in K-12 classrooms across STEM academic topics and career paths within the field of engineering. The platform will enable classes to post their projects to the site and for other classes around the country to participate in the project. Each challenge (and the associated education resources curated for that challenge) will be publicly displayed on the Future Engineers platform and offered free for student participation and classroom facilitation. The content management system will be developed to enable the platform to host a high volume of challenges simultaneously and will allow for a diverse array of student-generated submissions. The platform will also include teacher resources to support the alignment of game play with learning goals and to support implementation.